Wednesday, February 16, 2022

FREEEEDUMMBBBB!

But it’s not just mainstream attention, right? What about all the likes, shares, and retweets organically springing up on Facebook?

Well, funny thing about all that virality.

According to Grid, two of the biggest Facebook groups related to the protests—“Freedom Convoy 2022” and “Convoy to Ottawa 2022”—were created by a Bangladeshi digital-marketing firm. Ben Collins of NBC News wrote that “many of the groups have changed names multiple times, going from those that tap hot-button political issues such as support for former President Donald Trump or opposition to vaccine mandates, to names with keywords like ‘trucker,’ ‘freedom’ and ‘convoy.’” Much of this inorganic engagement isn’t coming from Canada at all. In his newsletter, Garbage Day, Ryan Broderick makes a pretty good case that much of the action is originating from just three sites. “I took a spin through the metrics around the Freedom Convoy movement on Facebook. Using two platforms, Buzzsumo and CrowdTangle, I was able to get a pretty good look at what kinds of content users are actually sharing about the convoy protests in Ottawa,” he wrote. “According to the third-party links that convoy protest supporters are engaging with, the bulk of it is coming from YouTube, Daily Wire, and Rumble.”

And who are these "freedom loving" truckers who just want to be left alone, free of accursed government mandates?

I asked my friend Jeet Heer, a Canadian columnist for The Nation who resides in Regina, Saskatchewan, about the protests. “There’s been an attempt to whitewash the so-called Freedom Convoy into just a protest about mandates,” he said. “But if you listen to the videos of the leaders and many of the prominent figures, what you’ll hear is QAnon- and sovereign-citizen-inflected ideas about Justin Trudeau being the illegitimate son of Fidel Castro, a hidden queen of Canada declaring martial law, the need to make citizens’ arrests and form a new government. No wonder the ‘Freedom Convoy’ has alienated the large majority of Canadians.”

Breaker, breaker, we got us a convoy!  Of lunatics.  I'm pretty sure Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz already knew this. I still say it's all over when the arrests start and JFK, Jr. doesn't appear to open the jail house doors.

And while we're on the subject of trucks and lunatics:
Lindell's truck drivers were not vaccinated, so they were turned away at the border. What did he think was going to happen? Honestly, this guy shouldn't have anything sharper than a rubber ball.  Come to think of it, none of them should.

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